Christopher Nolan Movies in Order: The Complete Filmography Guide

Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors whose name alone gets people into a theater: almost every one of his films plays with an unusual structure of time, memory, or perception. Kinogram's catalog currently holds 11 of Nolan's feature films, from Memento to the upcoming The Odyssey. His two earliest films — his debut Following (1998) and Insomnia (2002) — aren't in the catalog yet, so the list below starts with Memento. Inside the Dark Knight trilogy the order is mandatory; everything else can technically be watched in any order, but here's the chronology since you're here.

Memento (2000). A man with a rare form of amnesia — unable to form new memories for more than a few minutes — investigates his wife's murder using tattoos, notes, and Polaroids, with part of the story told in reverse chronological order. The film that started Nolan's reputation as cinema's time-puzzle director.

Batman Begins (2005). The first film in the Dark Knight trilogy: how Bruce Wayne became Batman, and why Gotham needs a man in a bat costume in the first place. Watch strictly before The Dark Knight.

The Prestige (2006). Two magicians in late-19th-century London turn a professional rivalry into a destructive obsession, each willing to go to extremes to outdo the other. A standalone story, unrelated to the rest of this list.

The Dark Knight (2008). Heath Ledger's Joker turns a superhero story into a crime drama about chaos and moral limits. Often called the best Batman film ever made — and one of Nolan's best, full stop.

Inception (2010). A thief who steals secrets from people's dreams is hired to do the opposite — plant an idea — in an operation that requires descending several dream levels at once. Kinogram has a whole separate guide of films like Inception, if this is your favorite Nolan film and you want more.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The trilogy's finale: eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, a new threat — Bane — emerges to threaten Gotham. Watch only after the first two films.

Interstellar (2014). A crew of humans searches for a new home for humanity through a wormhole near Saturn, and relativistic time dilation means an hour on one planet costs the hero decades of time with his family back on Earth.

Dunkirk (2017). The evacuation of British and Allied forces from the French coast in 1940, told through three intercut timelines — a week on land, a day at sea, an hour in the air. Almost no dialogue, and no single central hero.

Tenet (2020). A spy thriller where movement isn't limited to forward in time — literally, physically. Nolan's most puzzle-box plot since Inception.

Oppenheimer (2023). A biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," and the Manhattan Project — three hours long, a Best Picture Oscar winner, and arguably Nolan's most personal drama.

The Odyssey (2026). Nolan's next release — an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. As of this guide's publication, the film hasn't opened yet; check its Kinogram page for the release date.

New to Nolan? Start with Inception or The Dark Knight. Want the full arc from start to finish? Begin with Memento and work through in chronological order. Full details for every film — synopsis, year, and where to watch — are on their Kinogram pages.